


All we (I) do is drive (give you rides)

by yukiawison



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, M/M, Sort of 5 times fic, pre-Raven King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 21:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6628243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yukiawison/pseuds/yukiawison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam Parrish didn't often ask for a ride home; so when he did it was worth taking note, or rather savoring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All we (I) do is drive (give you rides)

Adam Parrish had to drop gym his freshman year. This was why Ronan was currently in the presence of a very sweaty, panting, and windswept Adam. The class had been running their usual 5k on the track outside the well groomed grounds of Aglionby, and Ronan was in the mood to skip. 

The real reason he couldn't pass gym with the rest of his grade was because the teacher kept excusing him for his various "accidents" at home. Now that he was at St. Agnes he was able to fulfill his gym credits, unfortunately for Ronan. 

Parrish had to be about the only person on the planet who looked hot running. Not the temperature kind of hot the hot kind of hot that reminded him that waiting around for Adam to finish was not his brightest of ideas. 

"Okay," Mr. Williams checked his stopwatch. "We're done. Go on home boys." The flock of freshman stopped, doubled over and panting. Adam wasn't nearly as winded as his counterparts, stretching his long and no doubt sore legs. God, did he have nice legs. Ronan was hoping he could slip away unnoticed, but he was staring too obviously, and Adam saw him. 

"Hey Ronan," he jogged over to him. There was sweat plastering his shirt to his collarbone. "You busy?" His voice had that extra twang that came when he was tired or drunk or upset. 

"No," he stuttered. "You need something Parrish?"

He smirked and folded his beautiful arms over his beautiful chest. Fuck, he knows exactly what he's doing doesn't he? 

"Do you think you could give me a ride home?" He was looking at him intently, eyes scanning his face for something. He didn't usually ask him this. He usually avoided getting a ride home like the plague. It was another one of Adam's things like refusing to let Ronan buy him coffee or birthday gifts worth more than $20. 

"Really?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I've got my bike but I thought I could put it in the trunk." Parrish never let him drive him home when he had his bike. Why was he denying his prime excuse?

"Ronan?" Adam said weakly. And Ronan realized why he was letting him drive him: Adam Parrish was about ready to pass out. He was good at pretending he didn't ache with every step, pretending that he wasn't running on two hours of sleep and cheap gas station coffee, but now, a 5k, three hours of homework, and a double shift behind him he couldn't pretend. 

"Sure Parrish. Do you have all your stuff?" Adam waved a limp arm at the bleachers, where his beat up backpack was resting. "Do you want me to get it for you?" He asked gently, this was dangerous territory. 

Adam narrowed his eyes but didn't say no. Ronan grabbed it for him, trying unsuccessfully to hide his grin. 

He practically collapsed into the passenger seat, and Ronan cranked up the AC so he wouldn't burn to death on the hot leather. Adam closed his eyes, still breathing heavily with his face flushed red. 

"Do you want something to drink?" Ronan asked. If Adam was accepting things today he was going to milk it for all it was worth. 

"Water would be nice," he breathed, then bit his lip as if he hadn't meant to let that slip.

Ronan went to the vending machine and brought him back a bottle of of that raspberry Dasani shit Gansey'd given him a sip of once and Ronan could tell he liked and a granola bar because he looked a little pale and had probably skipped breakfast. 

If Adam noticed he didn't say anything. He practically chugged the bottle of water, tipping his head back. Ronan could see his adam's apple move up and down. 

He started the car before any further distractions arose. 

Adam was dozing off beside him, still breathing unevenly. The light hit his face in the way that always made Ronan hate this time of day. The glare of the low sun gave him a deep orangey glow. It lit up the dirt brown hair plastered to his forehead with drying sweat. 

He pulled the car into his usual spot outside of St. Agnes. Adam didn't stir. Ronan just listened to him breathe for awhile. He thought about running his hand through Adam's hair early in the morning before he got up for work. And he was laying beside him with Parrish's arm slung over his chest. And everything was okay. Sometimes that seemed the most bullshit part of the fantasy. 

"Hey Parrish? You gonna get up?"

"In a minute," he moaned, accent thick and movements slow. "My legs hurt." He opened the door and climbed out wearily, opening the trunk and pulling out his bike. 

"Thanks," he said after wheeling so it was in line with the still open passenger door. He leaned down so Ronan could see him. "A lot," he added. 

"Whatever Parrish I'll see you tomorrow," he shot back, heart thumping much too loudly in his chest. 

***

Once Adam got the Hondayota he didn't have an excuse to ride with Ronan--not that he was looking for excuses. 

Ronan's hands always looked stronger on the steering wheel of the BMW. Actually they didn't look like his hands at all. His fingers looked too long, nails too sharp, grip too wary. His hands looked nervous. And Adam never pegged Ronan Lynch as nervous. 

Adam remembered one night when it was raining too hard to see the road except in tilted, headlight streaked blurs, and Ronan had insisted on taking him home so the rain didn't drown him in his beat up, ill fitting shoes. Ronan had been drenched to the bone too, and shivering as he turned up the heat and shed his wet Aglionby sweater in favor of the slightly dryer button up. 

Adam didn't take off his sweater. He liked the way it stuck to his skin in a wet, unpleasant hug. This was about as close to a real hug Robert Parrish's son got. 

Ronan stuck out his hands so they were millimeters from the heating vent. Adam didn't follow suit, preferring to make his own warmth by shoving his hands in his soggy pockets. He felt a disintegrating receipt, probably from the 7-11 he had dinner at after work on Thursdays. 

"Fuck Parrish, it's not charity it's just a heater." Ronan yanked on Adam's arm and pulled his hand to the vent. When Adam looked to him he looked away, embarrassed. 

"Fine," he said dismissively, warming his hands beside Ronan's. Of all people to have a crush on why did Ronan choose him? What was so desirable about Adam Parrish?

The Hondayota had shitty heating. Actually it was shitty in most ways but that was the reason Adam had allowed himself to take it in the first place. And now the engine wouldn't start. The engine wouldn't start and he would be late for work if he didn't leave in the next ten minutes. He sighed, pulled out his equally shitty pay as you go phone, and called Ronan. 

"Parrish," he growled. It was almost comforting in its familiarity. 

"Could you come get me? My car won't start."

"You're at St. Agnes?" He said gruffly. 

"Yeah and I need to be at the garage for my shift."

"Hold on Il'l be there soon."

He hung up before Adam could thank him. 

He wasn't late thanks to Ronan. "Can I stay?" He inquired, to Adam's surprise. "No one's at Monmouth." The implications of this statement were something Adam thought about uncomfortably: Gansey was getting too attached to Blue (for someone who was to die in the next month or so), and Ronan got lonely. 

"If you don't bother me," his accent cut off the t and lingered in the e. Ronan seemed unfazed by the exaggeration of normally flattened vowels. Maybe, he thought, there would be a time when he'd be confident enough not to think about how he spoke. Maybe he would start with how he spoke to Ronan. 

Adam picked up his grease stained clipboard and squinted at the paperwork in the dim light: broken carburetor. 

Ronan took a seat on a weary stool beside his station. It was quiet for a long time.

"Hey Parrish can I ask you something?"

"That depends on what it is," Adam never agreed to anything unless he had all the facts. 

"What do you want to be? Once you're out of this bullshit school I mean."

The unsatisfactory truth was that he hadn't given it a hell of a lot of thought. For years getting out of Henrietta--his old life--had seemed like a light switch he was stumbling groggily in the dark for. Only now, when it was so close, had he considered what it was he was trying to illuminate. 

He thought maybe he could be an aid to a politician: a campaign manager or PR person or whatever other job paid well. He could be a banker or stock analyst or something else that required stiff suits and whiskey in the afternoon. But he wasn't sure he'd really like it. The goal was success ultimately, not happiness. It made his skin crawl to think about it like that. But then again who was really happy?

"I don't know," he said at last, because he didn't. "Something you wouldn't like." It was supposed to be a joke but it didn't sound like one coming out of his mouth. 

"I'll like you whatever you are." Adam looked up from the engine he was knee deep in. Ronan didn't usually say things like this. He was never this clear and open. None of them were. 

He stared at him for a moment. Ronan didn't break the gaze as if daring him to disagree or shrug it off as something less important than it was. But for once Adam didn't want to do that. 

"Really?" He asked instead, voice flimsy and hopeful in a way Adam never liked to admit it could be. 

"Yeah Parrish," he replied. And that was all either of them said until it was time for Ronan to drive him home. 

***

Ronan was awake when his phone rang. He shouldn't have been but it was unsurprising that he was. He let it ring five times so his annoyance could seem justified. 

"Parrish," he said flatly. 

"Take me away."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I need to get out for awhile. Do you want to come?"

"Fuck yeah. I'll drive."

"See you in 5," the other line went dead before Ronan could respond. 

Adam was silent when he got into the car. He merely cranked up the already loud radio, gestured at Ronan to roll the windows down (he obliged), and leaned back in his seat. Adam never struck Ronan as the get me out of here type. He usually leaned toward suffering in silence. 

Tonight was a night that needed ear plugs. Everything was loud and fast and pulsed like hot blood in his thin veins. Adam was undone, and so the world must be on fire. 

He drove out past the Barns into no-mans-land where the stars were bright and it wasn't quite Henrietta but wasn't quite the next town over. He pulled over. There was no one on the road. 

Adam got out and tipped his head back to look at the vastness of it. Ronan looked at the vastness of Adam. 

He laid down in the grass. Ronan followed suit, laying inches apart from him, just far enough so their shoulders wouldn't touch. 

"Why did you need to get out?" Ronan asked. 

"It was too small. I needed this...space."

Ronan nodded in the dark. He was sure Adam couldn't see him. 

"I just have the sinking feeling that everything's going to go to shit soon." He said in a whisper. It was the sort of statement not spoken too loudly, lest it become truth. 

Adam's hand found his in the damp grass. His hand was rough from work, dry and calloused and just warm enough. He didn't say anything. 

"Do you ever dream of things you can't take back? Just to see if you could?"

Yes, you, the you who wants me like I want you. "I don't know Parrish, maybe."

"I wish you could dream up a map to Glendower, so he could be satisfied."

"He wouldn't, if it just came out of my head after all this."

"You're right."

"Hey Ronan?"

"Yeah Parrish?"

Adam leaned onto his side. They were facing each other. His eyes were big and tired and sparkling in the faded light that blurred the edges of his face in the dark static of a home video. Adam sucked in a breath. He let it out. And then he leaned in, scent of oil and ink assaulting Ronan, and he kissed him. 

His lips were soft and hesitant and Ronan was trying hard to remember how to breathe. He pulled away. Adam smiled. It was the delayed gratification of waiting for a milkshake to melt so you could drink it properly. Adam looked dizzyingly happy. Ronan kissed him, as long and careful as he could manage. 

When he broke away the world was spinning and Adam was the only thing standing still. He had bridged the gap between their shoulders and Ronan could feel how warm his skin was through his thin t-shirt. 

"What was that for?" He asked at last. It wasn't the right question but it was close. 

"I thought maybe after all this I deserved it." The statement was clear in its ambiguity. After all this was after he'd moved out of his dad's double wide or after he sacrificed himself to a godforsaken forest or after he realized there wasn't a future for him and Blue. Maybe he'd keep saying after all this until all this was finally through. 

"And now that you've done it?" He asked. He scanned Adam's face for any trace of regret. 

"I'd like to do it again." He leaned in and kissed Ronan again and it was new in its softness and careful intent. Adam was analyzing the kiss, he could tell. He wanted to see how they fit together and how close he could bring his chest to Ronan's, how the grass was flattened beneath them. 

It seemed so easy now. Ronan wondered how it could've been a secret, a taboo, an impossibility for so damn long. Adam laid back in the grass, eyes on the stars. He hooked Ronan's hand in his again. "So what do you want from this? What do you want from me?"

Ronan thought this fairly obvious but apparently it wasn't. He supposed the blur between friend and the other thing was more out of focus for Adam. "Well Parrish," he said. "I want to do more of that and I want you to spend the night at Monmouth and let me buy you dinner and lunch and hold your hand some more and come to church with me if you want," he didn't go on though he had more. He wanted 2 a.m. calls and texts and I love yous whispered across the static and dancing at prom and in the living room before Gansey got up and Adam reading on the couch with his legs slung over him and hair a mess. 

"So I'd be your boyfriend Lynch?"

"That's the idea Parrish."

He was quiet for a moment "Okay," he said. "That's what I want too I just..."

"Just what Parrish?"

"I don't know if I'll be any good at it."

"Well you were good at that."

"Yeah? Good, you were good too. Okay. Let's go back."

They got back into the car and Ronan turned the radio back on. He was too happy the whole way back to hear it.

***  
Being Ronan Lynch's boyfriend was surprisingly easy. So easy, in fact, that Adam often forgot that to the outside world Ronan was a rude and brittle enigma. He was sweet with him. He drove him to school everyday and to work and he brought him coffee and bagels for breakfast and he kissed him good morning. And they went out to dinner, they actually did. It was strange sitting at a booth at Nino's without the other three but in another way it was oddly comfortable to be alone with their hands intertwining across the greasy table. 

And Ronan always remembered to direct his voice at his good ear and bring him food the days he worked late. And sometimes he'd just lay on his lumpy mattress while Adam studied and they'd be quiet together for hours. 

Blue was the first one to find out they were dating. Not that they told her, she guessed. "Hey Adam can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure," Ronan was at church and Gansey was at home for Helen's birthday.

"You know that we're good right? Like no awkwardness if you're dating someone."

"Why would you say that?" He said a little awkwardly. It wasn't as if him and Ronan were a secret, but they hadn't told anyone. It could be bad if it got back to Declan or Adam's parents, but they didn't really discuss this. Obviously Blue wouldn't tell. 

"Are you and Ronan dating?" She asked. 

"How did you know?" He asked after reasoning that he couldn't work his way out of this one. 

She grinned. "He gives you a ride to school everyday. And Gansey saw you two alone at Nino's. Of course he's too clueless to realize what that means."

"What what means?" Gansey had opened the door without their noticing. He had his weekend duffel bag in one hand.

"How's Helen?" Blue asked instead of answering. 

"One year older one year wiser," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Were you talking about me?" He looked perplexed and slightly worried. 

Blue's eyes were on him. "Do you want to tell him or should I?"

"Ronan and I are dating," he said before he could lose the nerve. 

Gansey was looking at him like he had two heads. "You...and Ronan...so you two...and you're...I mean I knew he was....but wow okay. Wow," he repeated. He had stiffened into the polite and professional old southern Gansey. 

"I'm happy for you," he said after clearly realizing that Blue and Adam were staring at him. "I'm just surprised. I'm not a dick Adam."

"I know that," he replied. He hadn't expected any shit from Gansey. 

"Good, then we should double date," Blue said cheerily. 

"Double...we're not dating," Gansey was bright red and horrified. 

"Oh come on Dick we basically are," she turned back to Adam. "Does Noah know?"

"Noah knows everything," he replied as Noah materialized at Blue's elbow. 

"Isn't double dating just hanging out without me?" He asked her pitifully, reaching out a ghostly hand to pet her hair.

She frowned. "So we carry on as usual then?"

"I think we can manage that," Gansey answered, though the question was not really aimed at him. 

"Yeah, I think we can," Adam said. 

***  
Ronan parked and shut off the engine. In truth he didn't want Adam to leave. But it was late and he was probably tired. His face was sunburned, not as badly as Ronan's shoulders that were already peeling, but enough to make him look young and wild and more like a sunshine spirit than a magician. They had spent the day at the lake with Blue, Gansey, and Noah. 

"Well," Adam looked reluctant. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," he said, throat dry. Why did he feel like he breathed better with Adam near?

He pushed open the door and got out. "Hey," he said turning back. "Do you want to come up?" He'd never asked this before. 

"Uh...yeah," he said, kind of dizzy. "I'll come up."

Adam grinned at him. He rarely grinned so it was worth taking in. "I'm asking exactly what you're thinking Ronan," he said. 

"Okay," he said because it was all he could say.

He got out of the BMW. Adam scrunched up his nose in maybe a half sneeze half laugh. It looked too cute on him, too light and too soft and too happy for the Adam Parrish he had first met. But then again this wasn't the Adam he'd first met. 

"Good," he said. And then, slyly: "Thanks for the ride."

**Author's Note:**

> Last fic before trk kills me.


End file.
